The Bank of Italy was originally on the 500 block of South Palos Verdes Street, as shown in this photo taken circa 1969. The two medallions on the face of the building have been kept inside the paint store on the block and efforts are underway to salvage them. (Courtesy photo)

Demolition begins this week on a downtown San Pedro block that will be transformed into a seven-story apartment building that many hope will boost patronage for area shops, restaurants and the waterfront now beginning to take shape.

Officials will mark the start of demolition at an informal groundbreaking at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at 550-560 S. Palos Verdes St. A more formal ceremony will be held in the coming weeks, according to the developer.

Demolition is expected to take about a month and construction of the new 375-unit building should be complete in about three years, with the opening anticipated for 2020.

It’s one of several residential developments planned to be built in and around the downtown San Pedro area over the next few years.

Originally under the hands of Omninet Capital, the project was sold to Holland Partner Group in June for $24.5 million. Holland also is in exclusive negotiations to redevelop San Pedro’s closed county courthouse just blocks away.

Fewer, bigger units

“We’ve reduced (the number of units from 404) to 375 but we have grown the unit sizes,” said Ryan Guthrie, development manager with Holland Partner Group. “We’re building for the aging millennial who no longer likes living in a 500-square-foot studio in downtown Los Angeles and paying (excessively high rents). Now, they may have a family or just need a little bit more space and they don’t mind a commute of 15 minutes to Long Beach or 30 minutes to downtown Los Angeles.”

Offered in the new development will be studio-size up to three-bedroom units, he said, with some two-level town house rentals included in the mix.

The building will include a fitness center, a yoga space that looks out onto the pool deck, a rooftop sky lounge, and a club room looking out onto the port’s Main Channel. Included will be four courtyard spaces that also capture the water views.

No views from the 16-story Vue Apartments, which is just west of the Holland property on Fifth Street, are expected to be blocked due to the design and slope of the property, Guthrie said.

A contemporary design will include a mix of glass, metal and stucco, Guthrie said, with large balconies and plentiful windows to capitalize on the waterside location.

Beacon redevelopment

As for the buildings that will be coming down to make way for the new development, few tears will likely be shed. The bland, single-story structures being taken down to make room for the new development on 2.5 acres were constructed in 1979-80 as part of the Beacon Street Redevelopment project. They housed a paint store and offices through the years. But along with the rest of that redevelopment project, they offered little in the way of architectural aesthetics when they replaced what was part of San Pedro’s colorful, early 1900s waterfront district.

Many locals later lamented that 40-year-old decision, saying too much of the town’s historic architecture and character was swept away in the process. Included in that demolition of the block was the old Bank of Italy. Two medallions on the front of the building were salvaged, however, and efforts are being made to donate or display them, Guthrie said.

Property records show that the buildings on the block were built in 1979-80. In the decades since then, it housed a paint store, offices, some small storefronts and the Bank of San Pedro.

Donna Littlejohn has covered the Harbor Area as a reporter since 1981. Along with development, politics, coyotes, battleships and crime, she writes features that have spotlighted an array of topics, from an alligator on the loose in a city park to the modern-day cowboys who own the trails on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. She loves border collies and Aussie dogs, cats, early California Craftsman architecture and most surviving old stuff. She imagines the 1970s redevelopment sweep that leveled so much of San Pedro's historic waterfront district as very sad.